St. Louis Truck Assembly was a General Motorsautomobile factory that built GMC and Chevrolet trucks, GM "B" body passenger cars, and the 1954–1981 Corvette models in St. Louis. Opened in the 1920s as a Fisher body plant and Chevrolet chassis plant, it expanded facilities to manufacture trucks on a separate line. During World War II, the plant produced the DUKWamphibious vehicles for the military. Another expansion was added for the Corvette line in 1953.
On August 1, 1980, the Caprice/Impala assembly line was closed, contributing to the plant's closing in 1986. During the 1981 model year, Corvette production ended and shifted to Bowling Green Assembly Plant in Kentucky [3] Thereafter, the factory only manufactured R- and V-series crew cab and cab/chassis trucks before that output was moved to GM's Janesville Assembly.[4] Automobile production and maintenance workers were transferred from the closed truck line to the new Wentzville Assembly in 1986 which produced Buick and Oldsmobile front wheel drive replacements for the old rear wheel drive B Body cars.
At its peak, the plant had 35,000 employees producing 560 vehicles per day. A total of 6.3 million vehicles were produced at St. Louis Truck Assembly.[1]
The plant closed on August 7, 1986, its future essentially sealed when GM closed the Caprice/Impala assembly on August 1, 1980 and began developing a new factory, Wentzville Assembly — a then-state of the art, 3.7 million square foot plant on 569 acres approximately 40 miles (64 km) west of St. Louis, just off of I-70.
As of 2022, the Union Seventy Center, a 161-acre industrial warehouse stands where the former factory operated.[2]
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